Understanding and learning to use my superpower, determination

Determination, GRIT, stubbornness. Tenacity. Persistence. These are all words used to describe what I understand and recognise as my ‘superpower’, an ability I have that most others do not – the ability to doggedly pursue something until its completion. It is in this zone of determination that I perform at my best.

But thinking on it, there are a few criteria needed for me to get into this state of determination. In this post, I want to explore what those are, and how I can apply those criteria to manually trigger a state of determination and thus manually trigger peak performance. This will be more of a reflective/exploratory piece than one of fact-sharing, but some may still find it useful.

What’s needed to trigger determination in me?

To best understand the criteria needed to trigger determination, let’s look at some examples where it was present.

First, my charity boxing training back in 2018. Here I trained for 8 weeks for a charity boxing match against another man for cancer research.

Second, the untangling of an absolute mess of Christmas lights.

And third, more recently, climbing/bouldering problems.

Each has a few traits and commonalities that will help us understand areas of overlap and, as a result, what is necessary for me to trigger this state of determination.

Charity boxing training

• Clear deadline (externally imposed) – the fight
• Clearly defined victory (and defeat) conditions
• A physical element (training and the fight itself)
• A challenge
• Requires commitment
• Competitive by nature
• Anticipated (pleasurable) feelings of completion
• A desire to not lose / anticipated negative feelings of losing

Outcome – won the fight

Untangling lights

• No deadline / internal deadline
• A challenge
• Requires commitment to complete
• Element of competition – unravel the lights or be beaten by them
• Physical aspect (using my hands)
• Clear completion condition – untangling the lights (and clear defeat condition of quitting)
• Anticipated (pleasurable) feelings of completion

Outcome – gave up after several hours

Climbing problems

• Physical element – the climbing itself
• A challenge – requires many attempts, problem solving, trying new approaches, not ‘easy’
• A deadline (externally imposed) – the routes resetting
• Clear completion conditions – completing the problem
• Requires commitment
• Element of competition – me vs the wall
• Anticipated (pleasurable) feelings of completion
• A desire to not be beaten

Outcome – varies (depending on the route)

Of the 3, climbing problems seem to trigger feelings of determination the most. Aside from them being a regular activity and one I find extremely enjoyable, we can look at why this is in more detail.

So, what are the commonalities?

First, perhaps most important, is an element of competition, with clear victory and defeat conditions, and a deadline at which those conditions are triggered.

Whether it’s me vs another person or an inanimate object, it seems there must be a “me vs you” dynamic. This makes sense, as a lot of my deeper internal dialogue matches the Vince Lombardi quote “Winners never quit, quitters never win” (it was a core part of my massive self-improvement phase). There’s also the sense, somewhere, of a need to ‘prove’ myself. That I am good enough. Competition is one clear way to do that – if you beat someone or something else in fair competition, you are better than them, with the competition being proof.

Further, there must be a clear point in time at which these victory and defeat conditions are triggered. If the conditions were to go on infinitely, there would be no desire to achieve them before completion, and therefore no desire to be determined. Externally imposed conditions work best here, and even better are those with consequences for failing.

Next, I believe there must be a challenge to the activity. At least, enough of a challenge to hold engagement. Similar to the state of Flow (this may even be my variant of this Flow state), a challenge needs to be present, but not too much as to cause anxiety or a belief of impossibility. Similarly, the challenge needs to match my capabilities; I need to know that, with my current skillset or an easily acquirable skillset, that I can complete the thing. A belief that I can successfully complete the activity.

For example, a climbing problem several grades above my capability will not trigger determination or a desire for completion because I know, at my current skill level, it’s not physically possible. While I can feel some level of determination and desire to improve so that eventually I could do that climb, here we’re looking at the in-the-moment state of determination.

Thirdly, the activity must require commitment or persistence in some kind for that state to be triggered. Otherwise, there are consequences, such as the clear defeat condition. For example, were I not to commit to proper training in my boxing match, losing the fight would be much more likely, which was a motivator. Or with climbing problems – were I to be unable to complete the route or to give up, the route would have bested me; I would have lost. The way to overcome those consequences is through determination. To try and try again.

The remaining criteria are in no particular order.

Physical element – I believe there must be some level of physical engagement in order to trigger this state. Whether that be physical training, throwing myself at a boulder problem, or simply using my hands, it seems a requirement that the activity is based primarily within the physical realm. Real-time feedback is preferred.

Often, triggering this state of determination with a computer is difficult. The only time I can think of in which this has happened is during video games – League of Legends specifically – in which a desire to win (or not lose) has been so strong that it’s forced this state to arise. What this means is that actually, the activity doesn’t have to be physical, but that physicality is a component in the equation of achieving determination. If other factors, such as competition and clear victory/defeat conditions, make up for the lack of physicality, then determination can be achieved. More on that later.

Anticipated pleasurable feelings of completion – In essence, a fancy way of saying ‘dopamine’. There must be a motivation, a reason, to feel determined – I must want to be successful, to complete the activity. The reason for that can be anything, but there must be a reason. This pairs very nicely with the competition dynamic and clear victory/defeat conditions.

Problem solving – The activity should require some level of mental engagement and problem solving – be that finding the knots to unravel the lights, building and optimising my training plan, or figuring out the sequence of moves in the climbing problem. This doesn’t have to be present the entire time – it can actually become fatiguing if that were the case – but some aspect, or the possibility of that aspect being present, helps a lot.

Desire not to lose – Similar to competition, this desire not to lose can be a powerful driving force. I’m giving it its own section as the knowledge of this is useful for better understanding the triggers for determination. In many ways, a desire not to lose is stronger and more powerful than a desire to win. Humans are biased towards valuing negative things as worse than the equivalent positive. For example, gaining £10 is less pleasurable than the respective pain of losing £10 – in fact, about twice as painful as it is pleasurable. This cognitive bias is called loss aversion, and if understood can be used to great effectiveness.

As humans, we have two innate drives – 1) the drive to move towards pleasure and 2) the drive to move away from pain. When applying loss aversion to this praxeology, we can see how the drive away from pain is a more powerful driver than that towards pleasure. We want to avoid pain (loss) more than we want to gain pleasure.

So how do we use this to our advantage? The most natural way is through competition. I believe we’re hardwired for competition – it’s evolution. It’s literally in our genes. Our ancestors who successfully reproduced passed on their genes, while their rivals, who failed to do so, were eliminated from the breeding pool, thus removing uncompetitive genes. And not just early humans; our biology far before that also had to be competitive to survive and reproduce. The result is this hardwired drive to be competitive.

After all, the consequences are pretty dire – the complete removal of your genes; genetic extinction. I’m not going into much detail or as deep as I could here – more information can be found elsewhere online, I’m not qualified enough to discuss it here – but this should give enough of a foundation to help understand my point.

With this in mind, here’s an important point.

Given there are clear victory and defeat conditions, rewards for victory, and consequences for defeat, tapping into this drive away from pain through the innate wiring of competition means we can, in theory, trigger motivation (i.e. the desire not to lose) at will. And with that, we can trigger determination.

Competition and determination

I want to go on a slight tangent about competition, because it’s perhaps the most powerful factor, for me, in triggering determination. I’m extremely competitive and will strive hard if I know I have the potential to win. Competing against world-class athletes is futile for me, as I’m not at their level. But, competing with people at or slightly above my own level – well, that would really get me going.

It’s in competitions like this that I can feel extremely determined and perform at my best.

One thing I’m exploring, and may write an article on eventually, is the idea of bringing competition into everyday life in an effort to trigger determination. The core concept is this: if I were able to trigger competition against someone of a roughly similar skill level in the areas I want to perform better, then I could feel more determined and thus do so. The current test is tracking performance on a daily basis in quantifiable areas in which I want to improve, such as the number of pages read or the number of pushups done. I’ll then ‘compete’ with my past self to try and do more the next day. Account for daily variance by taking a weekly average and competing against that. Ad infinitum.

It’s not going completely as planned, and requires more time and data before I can give any results, but the above may be interesting or inspiring for some.

Anyway, back to the post.

How can I use these commonalities to manually trigger determination?

One way to think about these commonalities and how they work together to trigger determination is to understand it as an equation of sorts. Given the right amounts of select inputs, the output should, in theory, result in determination.

The equation of determination

Now that we understand the components of what triggers determination in me, we can begin to examine how they work together, which elements combine/compound, and how, together, they form the desired state of determination.

Now I know you’ve probably not done maths or algebra since school, but bear with me. It’ll be useful.

For this equation, here is the key:

• C = Competition
• V = Victory Condition
• D = Deadline
• Ch = Challenge
• Sk = Skills
• P = Physical element
• R = Requirement for determination
• A = Anticipated pleasure
• L = Desire not to lose

The value for each should be binary, either 0 or 1. Approaching values this way means we can know if determination is present. If the outcome is 0, it is not. If it’s 1 or more, determination is present or has the potential to be.

And here’s what that equation might look like:

C x R x Ch x (V + D) x (Sk + P) x (A + L)

What we can take from this is the following:

• There must be Competition
• There must be a Requirement for determination
• There must be some level of Challenge, and a way of knowing that challenge is achievable
• There must be either a Victory condition or a Deadline
• There must be some level of Skill usage or a Physical element
• There must be some Anticipated pleasure or a desire not to Lose or be beaten

To test this, let’s plug in the examples from before.

Boxing match

C x R x Ch x (V + D) x (Sk + P) x (A + L)
1 x 1 x 1 x (1 + 1) x (1 + 1) x (1 + 1) = >1 = Determination

This achieves all the criteria and so can trigger determination.

Unravelling lights

C x R x Ch x (V + D) x (Sk + P) x (A + L)
1 x 1 x 1 x (1 + 0) x (0 + 1) x (1 + 0) = >1 = Determination

This also achieves the desired output, even if some criteria are not present.

Climbing problems

C x R x Ch x (V + D) x (Sk + P) x (A + L)
1 x 1 x 1 x (1 + 1) x (1 + 1) x (1 + 1) = >1 = Determination

Again, this achieves all the criteria, giving us the ability to trigger determination.

But let’s look at some other examples in which determination is not present.

Making dinner

C x R x Ch x (V + D) x (Sk + P) x (A + L)
0 x 1 x 1 x (1 + 0) x (1 + 1) x (1 + 0) = 0 = No determination

Without Competition present, the equation results in 0, and so there is no determination.

Going to the gym (competing against yourself; progressive overload)

C x R x Ch x (V + D) x (Sk + P) x (A + L)
1 x 0 x 1 x (1 + 0) x (0 + 1) x (1 + 1) = 0 = No determination

While Competition is present here, there is no need (R) to be determined, and so we get 0. The Challenge here was lifting at a slightly heavier weight than last time.

Now, I could plug in some more examples, but I think this will suffice. Do feel free to try your own activities and see what the output is. Also, try tweaking the equation to match your own criteria; I believe this works for me and will be a useful way for me to see if determination can be triggered.

Triggering determination

The rest is the easy part. If the conditions are right for determination, it should naturally arise unless suppressed or consciously decided against.

So, then, to trigger determination all I need is to know whether it can be triggered. And we do that by using the equation.

I recognise I’ve just simplified a feeling into maths and criteria… At the end of the day, determination is a feeling, and will come and go. We can create the conditions for this feeling to be present more often, like by surrounding yourself with happy people and positive vibes to feel happier, but it is a feeling, and so logic won’t always apply to it.

Meaning, while having a way of knowing determination can be triggered is great, that equation won’t always be true (this isn’t proper maths because here numbers can lie).

Sometimes determination will trigger without certain criteria. And that’s OK, even good, otherwise we’d take away the innate pleasure of the feeling.

But at least this way I’m able to greatly increase the chances that determination will be present and thus unlock a higher calibre of performance. Because who wants a superpower that triggers randomly?

Certainly not me.

Until next time, peace.